Hydraulic shock absorber



March 19, 1940. R F PEQ ET AL 2,194,053

' vHYDRAULIG SHOCK ABSORBER Filed NOY. 14, 1938 PA/.PH PEO. %eewise JV. ffnaeun. @i M 5 Patented Mar. u, 1940 PATENT OFFICE f 2,194,053 HYDRAULIC suoox Ansoannn Ralph F. Peo and Gervase M. Magrum, Buffalo,

N. Y., assignors to Houde Engineering Corpora-V tion, Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 14, 1938, Serial No. 240,263

2 Claims.

This invention relates tov hydraulic shock absorbers of the rotary type and particularly to improved bearing and sealing arrangement for the piston element shaft.

Heretofore, in shock absorbers of the type referred to, the shaft extending from the piston hub in the working chamber was journalled directly by the outer wall of the working chamber with sealing packing surrounding the shaft at the l outer end of the wall. With such metallic bearing engagement of the shaft, fluid was forced out of the working chambers to leak along the shaft, and provision was made, usually in the form of an intercepting-channel in the bearing wall, to re- 5 ceive 'this leakage fluid in advance of the packing and return it to the fluid reservoir, such leakage detracting from the most eflicient operation of the shock absorber. l

An important object of our invention is to prevent such leakage and we preferably accomplish this by providing the wall through which the shaft extends with a bushing of resilient material such as rubber or material having the characteristics of rubber, and such rubber or material 5 may have brous material embodied therein, or

some lubricating material such as graphite, mica cient thickness so that during oscillation vof the.

piston structure under normal operation of the 5 shock absorber there will be no movement of the bushing faces relative to the shaft and supporting wall, but the oscillation movement of the piston will be followed by the circumferential distortion or interparticle movement of the busho ing material, thus eliminating the usual abrasion or wear and lost motion, while at the same time maintaining a complete seal against escape of uid along the shaft from the working chamber.

The bushing may be made comparatively thin, ,5 in which case its friction will hold it to the supporting wall and its inner face will act as a bear-- y ing for the shaft, and the graphite or self lubricating qualities of fibrous material embodied inA the rubber will afford the necessary bearing lu-l 0 brication, while the bushing will still act as an eilicient seal against leakage from the working chamberv out along the shaft. Such lubricating material will also serve as a lubricant where the bushing is comparatively thick and where abnormal oscillations of the piston elementwill (,Cl. 18S-89) and the base II of the cup-shaped housing, and l5 the outer wall I2 within the housing, define the cylindrical space for the piston structure which comprises a cylindrical hub I3 from which the varies I 4 extend. The outer wall I 2- hasv the extensions I5 forming partition Walls which `with 20 the piston structure divide the verticalworking space into working chambers I6, I6 and I1, I1'. l.

The chambers I6, I 6 are connected by a pas-g,

sageway I8 through the piston hub, and Athe, a

chambers Il, I1' are connected by the passage 19.' 2&5

The piston. structure shaft 20 extends outwardly through the .bore 2'I ofthe outer Wall I2, f

and the shaft has the bore 22 leading to the valve chamber 23 interposed between the passageways I8 and I9, a needle valve 24 extending from the 30 j exteriory through the shaftbore and into the Valve chamber, with its end 25 interposed between the passageways so as to control the resistance to the-flow of displaced fluid as the piston structure oscillates. v 35 The outer wall I2 is hollowed to provide reservoir space 26 for hydraulic fluid and this space is connected by check valve controlled passageways 21 with the lower working chambers I6 f and I'l. 40

In accordance with our invention we provide for the piston Ashaft 20 a bearing bushing of rubber or of material having the characteristics of rubf ber. Referring to Figure 2, thebushing 28 is comparatively thick'and is inserted -in the bore46 Y 2| "ofthe wall I2 toextendinwardly into engagement with theannular shoulder 29 lbetween the. y shaft and the piston hub I3. Agland ,ring f3!!Vv has threaded engagement in the outerend 'of jx I the bore 2| for forcing the bushing into intimatev 5.0"," y contact withboth the shaft and the face of thef i bore 2 I- and against the shoulder 29 of the piston 'hub-pso, that the bushing will form an effective sr seal for rpreventing lleakage from the working` f1:

chambers outwardly along the shaft'orthe bore vmii,

2l. Intercepting channels heretofore provided in the piston shaft supporting wall for intercepting and returning leakage uid to the reservoir, can thus be eliminated. Leakage being effectively stopped by the bushing, the working chambers of the shock absorber are not robbed of some of the effective fluid, any leakage being then merely from one working chamber to another. Where the bushing is comparatively thick, as shown in Figure 2, there will be no slippage between the bushing and the faces of the shaft and the bore 2i during oscillation of the piston structure under normal shock absorbing conditions, the oscillation o f the shaft being taken up entirely by the circumferential distortion or interparticle movement of the bushing material, and abrasion and wear of the shaft and bore face will be prevented.

To strengthen and toughen the bushing material it may be impregnated with brous material such as cotton, mica, asbestos, hemp, or

. material having lubricating characteristics such as graphite.

The bushing will then be tough enough to take the place of a metal bushing but will possess the necessary yielding and resilient qualities. Under abnormal shock absorbing conditions and resulting abnormal oscillation of the piston structure, the shaft may slip relative to the bushing but, under such conditions, the impregnated material having lubricating qualities will afford adequate lubrication to prevent wear.

In some installations it may be desirable to have the bushing comparatively thin, as shown on Figure 3. In such arrangement the bushing will be held to the face of the bore 2| in the bearing wall l2 and the piston shaft will oscillate relative to the bushing but the impregnated material will afford the necessary lubrication. The thin bushing, like the thicker bushing, will effect a seal against the escape of hydraulic fluid from the working chambers out along the piston shaft.

We thus provide for the piston shaft of a hydraulic shock absorber a supporting bushing which is substantially frictionless and which forms an eiective seal against escape of hydraulic fluid from the shock absorber Working chambers. By properly dimensioning the thickness of the bushing relative to the piston oscillation am# to be limited to the exact structure and arrange-.

ment shown anddescribed, as changes and modi'- fications may be made`without departing from the scope of the invention.

We claim as follows:

l. In a hydraulic shock absorber, the combination of a cylinder, a piston structure oscillatable in said cylinder and having a shaft extending therefrom, an end wall for said cylinder having a comparatively long bore therethrough through which the shaft extends, a bushing in said bore of material having the characteristics of resilient rubber, and means extending a short distance into the end of said bore and adjustable for sufficiently compressing th bushing material intimately against said shaft and the inner face of the bore to enable said bushing to bear substantially the entire service load on said shaft.

2. In a hydraulic shock absorber, the combi-l nation of a cylinder, a piston structure oscillatable in said cylinder and having a shaft extending therefrom, an end wall for said cylinder having a comparatively long bore therethrough through which the shaft extends, a bushing in said bore of material having the characteristics of resilient rubber, and means extending a short distance into this end of said bore and adjustable for sufficiently compressing the bushing material inti mately against said shaft and the inner face of the bore to enable said bushing to bear substantially the entire service load on said shaft, said bushing being of a thickness for interparticle movement thereof to follow the oscillation movement of the piston shaft Without slippage relative to the shaft or the bore face.

RALPH F. PEO. GERVASE M. MAGRUM. 

